I Prefer the Southwest Scramble

Traveling this week on business. USAIR instead of Southwest.The seats are more comfortable, but the service sucks. As does the boarding. If you’ve traveled on Southwest before you know they have an unusual boarding policy. No assigned seats. You get assigned a boarding group, A, B or C and you storm the plane and pick your own seat, while elbowing that little old lady out of your way and stepping on that screaming kid. But hey, you made it to your favorite window or aisle seat!

The rest of the world allows you assigned seats.I’ve complained about Southwest before, but after flying USAIR, I’m all for the Southwest Scramble. With Southwest, everyone is angling for a seat. Thus, there is a rush onto the plane and a rush to stake your claim to your seat by placing your butt in it. That means you jam your overhead bag where ever it will fit quickly.

To cheer you on, the Southwest flight attendants are screaming at you over the speaker explaining that the flight is sold out so grab a seat! Or, “The seats in the back of the plane arrive at Denver the same time as the other seats!”

So, you have the scramble for seats and the flight attendants yelling at you to get your butt down and I think on occasion they will use low powered tasers to get your asses moving faster.

Bottom line? With Southwest you are boarded, luggage stowed and the plane is rolling away from the gate exactly on time, even if one or two of you are still wandering looking for that last aisle seat.

USAIR and others? Damn, it takes three to four times longer to board! There isn’t a rush, because everyone has their assigned seat. So, you get people boarding leisurely. And seeking the very best spot for their overhead bag. The Flight Attendants on my USAIR flight just stood leaning against the seats bored. No screaming, no tasers, nothing. And many passengers arrived at the last minute, again, knowing they already had their seat.

It must have taken four times as long to board this flight!!!

But we did manage to leave almost on time, and we got about 200 yards away from the gate when we were informed that we had a 45 minute wait due to “Traffic” at Charlotte. I feared the worst, and was already surfing on my IPhone to www.flyersrights.org. I  expected the Fight Attendants to come down the aisle to offer us water or something. They vanished, like bugs when you turn the lights on. Not once did any of them come down the aisle.

Thankfully, the delay on the runway wasn’t that long and they did make up the time. So, no harm, no foul.

I didn’t get out of my training workshops until late, so on the beach at Myrtle Beach, SC the light was gone. However, that didn’t stop me from trying to get some shots.

I am up now at 5:45, so hope to go down from the 14th floor and get some sunrise shots.

Be at peace my friends.

SCG